how OS were your parents?

clutterydrawer

And how do you think their attitudes affected your own towards all things OS?


My mum is super thrifty and as a youngster I was indifferent to it but now I'm so, so grateful that because of her I can sew/knit/bake/mealplan/use leftovers etc. It'd be so annoying having to learn it all from scratch as an adult!

SunnyGirl

My parents were, and still are, very OS It's not even because they have to be now (well no more than anyone else these days :eek: ) but because they hate waste, like to save & will always shop around to make sure they're getting the best deal on ANYTHING before they buy it whether its food, a computer, a carpet, a holiday, a car, a caravan .... They have taught me so much really. I grew up having no convenience foods at all, not even the chippy, and my Mum's favourite cokkery book was The Paupers Cookbook by Jocasta Innes. I can remember that Mum used to freeze even the last tinned tomato in an old yoghurt pot :T

mardatha

Well mine were a bit but not a lot. My dad grew all his own veg and made wine, he was old country style man, but my mum had had a hard life and was careful with money but liked to buy the best when she could afford it. I had to learn fast when I eloped at 16 and the OH worked in the docks --they were ALWAYS on strike and we didnt get strike pay.

Wonder_Girl

My Mum & Grandma are rubbish with money, really bad, always in debt and borrowing from peter to pay Paul. Never planning anything in advance and being surprised by bills.

This has made me super careful, because I have seen the stress is caused and never want to end up that way myself.

I now do all my Grans banking for her, I give her pocket money each week from her pension but I pay all the bills, do her shopping online etc, she has no responsibility other than putting petrol in the car and she loves it, in the last six months she has bought a green house, new dish washer and went away on a two week holiday when she "had no money" all because of planning

You are lucky that you were able to learn by example, I had to learn the hard way! Lol

xxvickixx

This is interesting. My mum was very OS too, she made most of our clothes and made food from scratch, she always got the yellow stickered food at the supermarket too!
And she still eats food way past its best before date (I still can't bring myself to do this with fresh food).
I am really grateful that she passed a lot of the OS skills on to me as a lot of my friends really struggle now they are having to cut costs as they don't know where to start.

mary43

I grew up during the late 40's and my parents were very much the 'make do and mend' type..........dads shed was full of things 'just in case' and mum seemed to be permanently either knitting for me and my brother, darning socks (which she taught me and it became 'my job') and making dresses for me from adult dresses. As a result, when I first got married and my OH lost his job I was able to rummage through the local jumble sale, gather up an armful of mens shirts and make smaller ones for my two boys and romper dresses (babygros hadn't been thought of...........lol) with a bit of embroidery on the front.
I cooked suet roll stuffed with just onions if we couldn't afford the meat, and a joint of beef would next day become a casserole, then add dumplings the following day, and with a tin of vegetable soup added or fresh veg if we had it another meal could be got by turning the remains into a pie.
I made a lot of my clothes myself (had a sewing machine then) mostly by altering some I got from jumble sales or had given me.
These habits have stuck though sadly I can't knit or do much sewing due to problems with my hands but I do delight in getting 'something for nothing' -or next to nothing and creating bits and pieces for the home - one mans rubbish etc.
Trouble is, I am also a great hoarder and am trying hard now to recognise the things that will never be of any use, sentiment etc. and get rid of them. Hard task for me.

MissB_2

My folks are very much OS - largely because of their own 1950s upbringings, I think, although I know when Dad was made redundant in the early 90s we needed to be even more careful (though at the time it totally passed me by).
I do so many things their way because of how it reduces waste and makes better sense. I think the meals taste better, the gifts are worth more with the extra thought and work in them and the house is more ho,mely with the personal touches of things I've made, fixed, rescued and kept.

The only thing I REFUSE to follow is how they keep their heating so low (about 17ºC/60ºF). I have Crohns and I can't be going about being cold, especially when I'm ill. The home of one of my Grandparents was so bitterly cold it made me dread seeing them and I hope my folks dont end up down the same road - I dont think they'll ever be as extreme as the 1-bar-on-the-gas-fire, but I really would rather they kept themselves a little warmer.

This house is very cold; it has a late 50's idea of central heating which means my bedroom lacks a radiator and the 3 in the house (2nd bed [office], hall and lounge/diner) are not as efficient as new ones would be. My landlord's just had the boiler overhauled and a thermostat put in, so I couldn't dream of asking for new rads and I'm very grateful already for the changes the overhaul made!
Beause of that, my heating's always on when I'm home and awake - from aout the start of Oct until mid-March - it's off at night and on low for an hour before I get in, to help keep the place reasonable, but if I could choose and if I had the system to do it, it would always be on 18º without question.

I'm so grateful for the skills my parents taught me - and also for the ones they are teaching me as I get older. I hope I make them proud.

B
x x x

tessie_bear

mine arent at all os they do all shopping in m and s and throw loads away......i sit on their settee biting my tongue

sistercas

my parents wernt very OS, I was brought up in the 60's and [EMAIL="70@s"]70's[/EMAIL] they used to run a big old car which I imagine used to eat petrol
mum used to buy smash potato and a dried beef rissoto yuk! and lots of time saving meals. they are rubbish with money even now and have no savings.
I remember having to lend them some money when I was about 17 as they had nothing.

purpleivy

My parents were and still are to a great extent OS. WHen we were young there wasn't a choice. Mum doesn't cook everything from scratch these days, but most things are. She does buy cake sometimes now, but main courses are all hm. SHe makes bread now, which she didn't always have time to do when we were younger. She has always made marmalade and jams, pickles and they grow lots of veg and some fruit in the garden.

She sewed things for us and knitted stuff too. Grandma helped her with that when they got together. Sheets were side-to-middled. old ones into dusters, old cotton vests became dishcloths.

Dad has always tried to mend stuff before throwing it away and buying new. He's good at really fiddly little mends. Not always cosmetically beautiful,but for a lot of things that doesn't really matter.

My maternal grandparents were like that too. Grandma mended stockings and kept those ones for wearing about the house and to do the gardening in. Old shirts were cut into squares to make lovely soft hankies. She made us things for Christmas, sweaters, lovely quilted fabric dressing gowns (at least at the time we thought so, having had the hairy sort, having nylon flowery was marvellous after those!)

I remember her getting a half pig and sorting it for the freezer. I turned the mincer for her for the sausage meat and then we had some for tea. When I helped to clear her house with my mum, aunt and their cousin we had such a lovely time. I got the mincer that I had turned all those years ago!

We were there in the winter to do this. It was 5C (in the house!) when we arrived. Grandma died in Canada while visiting my aunt, so the place had been closed up for several months. True to form, there were bread, butter, meat, veg etc etc in the freezer. Coffee, tea and dry supplies in the pantry, brandy in the sideboard. We got her percolator and manual coffee grinder out and made some coffee. We made fires with the wood and coal that were there. Grandma was so prepared for us being there!

We slept all in one of the downstairs room where it was warm. (no central heating!). It was such a lovely close time.

So the answer is 'yes'!

My paternal grandmother didn't waste food at all, but did buy preserves etc. That may well only have been in her later life to be fair, as she had a really difficult time money wise during the war. She certainly knew how to eke out the housekeeping.

jcr16

my parents were very very much so. My dad was a country lad. ( he was born 1947, my mum 1956) dad along with his parents grew everything, all around the village you could get anythign you wanted as someone grew it or made it. My mum was 16 when her parent's split up so at 16 my mum got a job and support her mum and sister so was always very very sensible with money , she knew where every penny went. she worked in a haberdasher's so was fantastic at sewing. and was an excellent cook. when they first got married mum told me she would knit my dad his sock's for work. their first home was so cold they lined windows with clingfilm etc and mum made really thick curtains. my dad's parents had alloments and grew there own veg so when mum needed something she would just go and dig up up. she said it wasn't until my grandad died and they had to let the alloment go that she learnt to weight veggie's. she said if she need some for a meal it was a case of i need 4 so dug up 4. My parents made do and mended everything they could until it could be mended no longer. they never wasted food. mum and dad did have a car but it was classes as a luxury. my dad has never learnt to drive so cycles everywhere. not only keeps him fit but save money in travel cost's although now he is 60 he has a bus pass so will if weather really bad get a bus. I remember as a little girl making log bricks out of news papers for the fire. they would buy coal by the tonne as cheaper and ran the open fires and aga with this. Even now they still don't have central heating, if cold they put on another jumper or turn on the gas fire in the room there in. they do have an aga so always a back ground heat. their garden is a veggie plot , the whole of it. my mum used to bottle and pickle and make everything. Now mum and dad aren't so os. although they are still very careful with money. meals are well thought of. but they have had heath prob's and my little bro is 12 so they do buy takeaways more then when i was little for a treat for him. ( poss once every 6 weeks maybe) my mum still work's and my dad full time. Alot has rubbed off on me and i'm just finding my os skills burried deep down inside. i've got all my great cooking skills from mum even tho we never really cooked together, but i always watched her. i'll think of more to add later, lol